Ohio Court Grants Motion to Stay Class Discovery in TCPA Case

Plaintiff Ken Johansen filed a lawsuit against National Gas & Electric LLC for alleged violations of the TCPA. Johansen claims that he was called by the defendant on three different occasions during June of 2017, even though his number was on the national Do-Not-Call list. On December 20, the court granted the Defendant's motion to stay class discovery, citing that Johansen had "posed" as an interested customer in order to find out more information about National Gas & Electric. The opinion states, "The court finds that the admissions of plaintiff in his affidavit and response brief cast serious doubts on his fitness to serve as an adequate class representative." Read the full opinion here. If you or your business are facing a TCPA class action lawsuit, make sure you have a TCPA lawyer on your side. Save yourself headaches like this by understanding and applying telemarketing compliance principles. Make sure you understand DNC regulations, autodialer laws, cell phone telemarketing laws, robocall laws etc. A telemarketing lawyer can even perform a telemarketing compliance audit of your company, which can help you avoid plaintiffs and regulators.

FTC Offers MLM Guidance

The FTC has published an 18-point online guidance document to help Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM) business owners understand and comply with the many laws that affect that industry. Topics cover compensation structure, similarities and differences between MLMs and business opportunity organizations, inventory loading, etc. Read the guidance document here.

FTC Fines Company For COPPA Violations

The FTC has filed a complaint against VTech, an electronic learning products company, for alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). According to the complaint, VTech allegedly made false claims about the encryption that is used on their website to protect consumer data. Also, VTech allegedly "Failed to provide sufficient notice on its website about the information it collects from children, how it uses that information, and its disclosure practices." Read the full complaint here.